On Flores Island, Do “Ape-Men” Still Exist? Sapiens
Fruitarian Frogs May Be Doing Flowers a Favor New York Times
Welwitschia mirabilis: A Living Fossil that’s worthy of all our admiration ZME Science
Bosniak Muslim, who set off on foot from Europe for Hajj, reaches Iraq Anadolu Agency
Cruise workers reveal what happens if you quit your job in the middle of the ocean Business Insider
Climate/Environment
Cities Are Banning Cruises Due To Erosion, Air Pollution, And Over Tourism Travel Daily Media
Dwindling sea ice and rising Arctic ship traffic may bring unwelcome visitors to King Island, Alaska High Country News
Water
Flooding in eastern Iowa could exceed other recent major floods Des Moines Register
#COVID-19
This professor is a global coronavirus expert. Now he has long COVID Financial Review (Mark)
White House Correspondents’ dinner attendees asked to test for COVID-19 after 2022 superspreader Washington Examiner
The covid public health emergency is ending: it now joins the ordinary emergency that is American health The British Medical Journal
Legislature narrowly approves bill stripping authority from state, local public health officials Kansas Reflector
Old Blighty
British infrastructure agency running out of money says leaked report Rail Freight
China?
Could China build a second capital in the far-western deserts of Xinjiang? South China Morning Post
Defending a Mock Invasion of Taiwan Signals Shift for Army Special Operations After Years of Counterinsurgency Military.com
Why did Sen. Tuberville bet against this Taiwan company in stock trade? Responsible Statecraft
Important story that’s been completely missed by Western media but is making the round in China.
In retaliation to Japan increasing support for Taiwan independence, China has started to put its weight behind the independence of the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa, etc.)
A small 🧵
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) April 29, 2023
New Not-So-Cold War
The Last Hurrah Moon of Alabama
Massive Blaze at Fuel Depot in Crimea After ‘Drone Strike’ Kyiv Post
Shocking❗️
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán explains the reason for the war in Europe.
“Complete restructuring of power within Europe” 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/j9OtS8le6h— Based Hungary 🇭🇺 (@HungaryBased) April 28, 2023
***
SCO Meeting: Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu defends China, slams US over QUAD, AUKUS Firstpost
Meeting of the Defense Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Delhi Gilbert Doctorow
Russia slams Polish ‘seizure’ of embassy school in Warsaw Al Jazeera
Poland Wants To Provoke Russia Into Being The First To Formally Cut Off Bilateral Relations Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter
***
Spot That Nazi!!! The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda
Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold peace settlement talks in Washington on Sunday LBCI
Don’t Just Remember the Armenian Genocide. Prevent It From Happening Again Time
Signposting Another Genocide: The World’s Obligation to Act on Clear Warning Signs Human Rights Program Harvard Law School. Armenia-Azerbaijan.
Syraqistan
U.S. Seizes Iranian Oil From Tanker OilPrice
MSM’s latest freakout over Afghanistan withdrawal Robert Wright, Nonzero Newsletter
South of the Border
Mexican Senate expeditiously approves set of laws, mining reform Reuters
What Would Happen if South America Formed an OPEC for Lithium Time
Lithium in Bolivia — A Looming Clash of Views Consortium News
B-a-a-a-a-d Banks
US regulator asks banks including JPMorgan and PNC to bid for First Republic FT
Fed Seen Boosting Rates Even as Economic Risks Build Bloomberg
Biden Administration
How Biden’s New Communications Director Made His Millions The Lever
The Debt Battle: Green Subsidies vs. Industrial Policy Philip Pilkington, Compact
2024
Ron DeTedious: DeSantis underwhelms Britain’s business chiefs Politico
Realignment and Legitimacy
Is it too late to save America? The Spectator
GOP Clown Car
State abortion ban failures highlight rising GOP anxiety The Hill
The Supremes
Watchdog Sends Mobile Billboard to Roberts’ Country Club, Demanding: ‘Clean Up Court’ Common Dreams
Have we really become so cynical that we believe that $10 million in bribes could affect the decisions of the Chief Justice of the highest court in the land?
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) April 29, 2023
Healthcare
A ‘Hidden Curriculum’ in Med School Trains Doctors to Have Less Empathy (Chuck L) Science Alert
Nurses to get more power over staffing levels under bill passed by Minnesota Legislature Minnesota Reformer
AI?
OpenAI: ChatGPT back in Italy after meeting watchdog demands AP
Groves of Academe
University of Minnesota graduate students unionize after decades-long push Minnesota Reformer
Imperial Collapse Watch
Army orders aviation stand down in wake of fatal helo accidents Breaking Defense
Air Force graduates 1st recruits to become US citizens under quicker naturalization process Stars and Stripes
Tech
Companies Are Colluding to Cheat H-1B Visa Lottery, U.S. Says Wall Street Journal
In Defense of the Landline Telephone Lifehacker (KSmith)
Our Famously Free Press
The People Who Acquired Football Outsiders Are Screwing The People Who Built It Defector
Class Warfare
Judge Bolden refused to let the Antitrust Division enter key evidence, and kept shutting down lines of questioning. https://t.co/HwOTAf2SDY
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) April 28, 2023
Homeless in the City Where He Was Once Mayor New York Times
Sweeps of homeless people are in fact deadly, new medical study shows 48 Hills
How Finland Virtually Ended Homelessness—and We Can Too Common Dreams
Zeitgeist Watch
Nepal has granted a record number of permits to climb Everest despite potential for traffic jams in the so-called ‘death zone’ Business Insider
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
176 comments
Comments are closed.
Politicians and supreme court justices are apparently on the take. Well at the very minimum we know what the asking price is! Nothing to see, nothing to see, move along in the best ever time to be alive in America. Good grief, I am not cynical enough anymore. And I’m really damn cynical!
Roberts should take a lesson from the Clintons. Establish the Roberts Foundation, funded by private donations. It’s mission to advance our understanding of Law in the United States. Then setup a private email server. If some urgent important folks feel they are having long wait times to learn if their case will ever be considered or maybe are losing sleep at night about it’s outcome should it granted consideration, somehow I’m sure word will get out to them to “contact the Roberts Foundation.” And Roberts could staff his foundation with his children, friends, etc. Maybe even Roberts offspring have up coming weddings?
It’s all been done before in plain sight. So it must be legal.
Heard somebody was planning on posting a list of 95 theses on the door of the Supreme Court, but due to beefed up security was apprehended well before the scofflaw was allowed their indulgence.
Well, now that is just the end! Look for Roberts to make a big mea culpa via tweet and the promise of a SCOTUS produced Code of Ethics that channels the ethos of the great legal mind of the late Roy Cohn, the unacknowledged lodestone of the current lineup. The dimwits in congress only recognize a co-op when it’s created by working people.
That tiny violin they’ve been strumming is in need of a luthier.
What a viol pun! Finish the job and stand up for base. (No, I’m not stringing you along.)
Ye thinks he doth Protest too much?
Yes, I have to admit that the apparently accepted levels of corruption in all branches of government are rather astonishing, but almost as surprising is the level to which it is now being reported in parts of the MSM.
A sideways admission that it’s all starting to come a bit unglued? Or is the non-MSM starting to have an impact?
i read things like this…even at the local level…and wonder: is the late roman or late ottoman more analogous to the current state of civilisation….
(i admit, readily, i know much more about Rome….and find the Turkish language almost as offputting/grating as descendants of Slavic(I’m 1/4 Czech/Bohemian)…its an unconscious aesthetic thing, i think.(that said, the Turkish series “The Gift” is worth watching…and lead woman is pretty hot, too(about Gobele Topeke))
My education of this history is sadly lacking so I’ve been learning from Michael Hudson’s books and videos. Even what I had learn previously seems to have been somewhat warped to make present day neoliberalism look more palatable.
Thanks for the recommendation, I’m checking it out now.
It could indicate a number of different things, for example:
1. Desire to undermine, or further undermine, the reputation of courts or other institutions, in order to prepare public opinion for a future purge or other irregular proceedings.
2. Desire to put pressure on particular judges or officials, in a way that is difficult for them to counter. Since the Trump case is likely to end up in SC, it makes sense for Trump’s enemies to already start putting some heat on a few of the so-called “conservative” judges on that court.
Where you see MSM, suspect the regime. If MSM attacks somebody you already hate, maintain your suspicion.
3. It could be proof of elite impunity. It just doesn’t matter whether or not the public knows about corruption in high places. This is compatible with the above possibilities, i.e. if the regime approves, you can be as a corrupt as you please, but if the regime decides to purge you, your corruption will be the ostensible cause. The corruption itself is beside the point; nothing matters except your usefulness to the regime. Or perhaps better to say that what matters most is that your fellow elites feel that you are one of them, and will do anything to remain so.
The mere spread of cynicism is not necessarily against the interests of an authoritarian regime. Indignation fatigue, like compassion fatigue, weakens social bonds, and indirectly favours those who are already powerful, who needn’t rely on those bonds.
But I am, myself, very cynical. What does this mean? It means that I am a man of my times, living under a regime like this. I am not superior to the people of my time. I am but one man, within that mass.
Indignation fatigue, like compassion fatigue, weakens social bonds . . .
Smart take. All this exposure will amount to nothing unless it amounts to something. And it’s so liberating to let go of the things I feel I can’t do anything about.
Seeing that emperor come out naked again and again is a solid invitation to look away and tend my garden. The collective complicity is like being naked too, so that everyone in the square is somehow vulnerable and no one can trust another when the pogrom comes after nudists.
Maybe that portable sign should read . . . ” Make corruption illegal again”.
If the sign is big enough it could even say more. It could say . . .
” Make corruption illegal again.
After all, you made it legal to begin with.
So you can make it illegal again if you want to.”
Maybe the whole Supreme Court itself really is its own Garbage Barge, which sails and sinks and sails and sinks over and over and over again.
It sinks and then rises from the cesspool of its own existential essence like a Sewage Phoenix.
“This professor is a global coronavirus expert. Now he has long COVID”
Looking at this optimistically, in a coupla months this headline may have to be modified-
“This professor is a global coronavirus expert. Now he has long COVID. Will become a global Long-Covid expert”
. . . a study from Cambridge University published in January found that an analysis of blood chemistry can identify whether people are likely to be on a trajectory to long COVID, and even predict whether they will die from the disease.
“It’s scary because that is all set even before we get the disease. We can predict if someone is going to die, but we can’t do anything about it. So thinking about how we can intervene with those patients very early to change their life-course trajectory is our current big challenge,” Professor Nicholson said.
Uh, okay then. Where can I get that test? Ya know, for my personal risk assessment.
Maybe don’t until they’ve set up some kind of legal protection?
“Hey, thanks Doc, now I know exactly what my risks are with respect to a viral plague that is running uncontrolled through our society! I’m sure everyone who insures me and my employer will be grateful I was proactive.”
Based on what I have seen, it will be made law that if you get that test, that you will be required to share that result with your insurance company who will then be able to raise your premiums if you will be susceptible or even cancel your policy.
Well . . . here’s what we could do about it. We could institute all the public health layered layers of defense needed to keep any more people from even getting covid to begin with. But that would require a revolution against the authorities to either torture and terrorise them into instituting all the layers of layered defense, or would require wiping those authorities out of physical existence and replacing them with new authorities dedicated to replacing Let ‘er Rip with Make ‘er Stop.
Re today’s Antidote du jour. I’ve seen worse haircuts. And ones that they actually paid for.
Check the originating tweet, the two images in combo looks like a setup for one of those reaction memes.
And is that Biden before the morning pills?
No, that’s Nuland after the latest Ukraine Situation Report.
i saved the one on the right…put it in the desktop image rotation. his(?) eyes are remarkable.
i’ve only interacted with Great Apes through glass, at various Texas Zoos.
Orangutans have always been my faves, because of these interactions…seem calmer, and we sit there and look at each other for a time.
i wish they could talk.
Not all communication is verbal.
I remember watching Christaan Bernard, at least I believe it was him, on a talk show explain why he no longer transplants chimp hearts into humans.
Roughly, from memory, the story went like this:
“When we went to the animal holding room and chose the donor chimp, the other chimps there started crying and trying to touch the soon to be dead fellow primate. That’s when I realized that the apes understood what was happening and knew the eventual outcome. I swore never to do one of those surgeries again, and I never did.”
Now, genetically ‘modified’ pigs are the donors of choice.
“On Flores Island, Do “Ape-Men” Still Exist? Sapiens”
The amount of prostrating for the mob in this article is deeply annoying.
And i increasingly find myself thinking that verbal accounts, particularly those that survive a few generations, produce a poor rendition of time passed.
As old man Burke illustrated in one of this Connections episodes, grandpa speaking about grandpa speaking about grandpa may well land you over 100 years back in history.
My father speaking about my grandfather to ten year old me would have been enough. He was born in the 1880s and I was born in the 1980s. I come from a long line of late marries on both sides. It would not surprise me to reach 200 years back in four ancestors.
Same with me. My paternal grandparents were born in the 1880’s and maternal grandparents maybe a decade later. I never met any of them. My great grand parents died over a century ago and so far as I’m aware they were similarly late marriages, so I would easily go back to the 18th century with 4-5 generations.
This is quite common in rural Ireland among those with a bit of property as it was common not to marry until you could be sure that the land would be passed on, which isn’t easy if your parents are only 2 decades older than you. Its still a social problem in some rural areas – 50 year old bachelors living with their parents and working on the farm, unable to marry as no sensible woman would walk into that situation. You’ll find a few of them in September in Lisdoonvarna.
Pretty common amongst the Irish diaspora in US also. As my mom would charitably say, “He hasn’t got a pot to pi$$ in.”
…or a window to throw it out of.” As my nana used to say.
Don’t go using that phrase in Prague though-
https://www.britannica.com/story/defenestration-pragues-history-of-literally-throwing-authority-out-the-window
Part of the diaspora over here in Canada myself. Like yourself, my paternal grandfather was born in the 1880s — I have no memory of him as he died while I was a toddler. My son is 17, so the gap is large. He’s in the same class at school with a cousin who is an entire generation after himself — the other boy’s grandmother is my cousin on the paternal side.
The divide between myself and my ancestors yawns even larger, my father having been the first of the family to get an education and escape the “rural idiocy” I imagine the paternal line to have endured all the way back to our emergence from Africa 60-90 thousand years ago.
aye!
my dad talking about his grandad had a major influence on my whole autarky thing.
like the shortwave=>Granma=> son is a near commie wasnt his intent…these interactions didn’t impart the “lessons” intended,lol.
And 54% of Icelanders believe in elves or say it’s possible they exist.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/believes-elves-exist-mythology
The authorities, assuming they are not believers themselves, humor the populace by diverting roads around “elf habitats”.
In mid 19th Century Ireland some English railway engineers built the Harcourt line into Dublin running over a fairy fort in Ranelagh, despite warnings from locals that the spirits would have their revenge. More cautious drivers always tooted the horn before passing the old fort, to give them fair warning that their slumber would be disturbed. But in 1900 one driver of a cattle train, no doubt an atheist or a Protestant, didn’t toot the horn.
This was the result.
Looks like that slacker of a Tank Engine decided to break out of durance vile after all. Who says that Thomas the Tank Engine’s associates are all willing lackeys to Capitalism?
they did produce Bjork, so I can kind of understand….
If the “Ape-Men” do actually exist, I hope they’re never found or they’ll be studied to extinction.
Back in the 60s – 70s I was told by my grandmother and her sister about things that had happened in WW1 (their half-brother was killed in 1918 while serving with the AEF in France). I’m grandpa age now (though not one) so it certainly is possible to go back 100 years with just one link.
Late marriages here as well and both of my Grandfathers were born in the 1880’s.
I met a few Spanish War vets when I was a child and a whole slew of WW1 vets.
Here is a thought-
‘Albert Henry Woolson (February 11, 1850 – August 2, 1956) was the last known surviving member of the Union Army who served in the American Civil War; he was also the last surviving Civil War veteran on either side whose status is undisputed.’
So you could have a reader here who could have met as a child somebody who grew up in the 1850s and fought in the American Civil War.
My wife (I’m her second husband and she’s my second wife – both of us having been widowed) became a great-great-grandmother two years ago, to her great delight. So four generations were, and are, alive concurrently.
It intrigued me to compare that with my own case. My great-great-grandfather was born in the year of Waterloo (1815) – and my paternal grandfather in 1850. So I am descended – in contrast to my wife – from someone who not only is not still living but who was born more than two-hundred years ago.
Sorry, I confused myself (symptomatic…?).
My wife became a great-grandmother. It was *her* mother (then still living) who became a great-great-grandmother and thus one of the four generations of the same family alive at the same time, and with whom I was contrasting my own case.
“Air Force graduates 1st recruits to become US citizens under quicker naturalization process Stars and Stripes”
WW3 is looking more and more like WW1, where for example UK made extensive use of colonial troops.
Next up may be a Varangian Guard recruited from Ukraine!
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Didn’t the Varangi Anglos settle Crimea?
I seem to recall that joining the US army in the 1950s promised an accelerated path to citizenship for immigrants. Unless memory fails me, a young Hungarian refugee from the 1956 uprising, with whom I worked on a summer job, joined the army for that express purpose.
Didn’t always happen. I was reading cases of vets who had served in Iraq who nevertheless were deported after finishing their service. This was during the Bush era. I also recall how it is illegal for a bank to foreclose on a home of a vet serving overseas – and yet banks were doing it and the government looked the other way.
I think the Anglos came later.* I just thought it would be ironic if our present day emperor felt the need to surround himself with UkroNazis after the war ends in the same way that the Byzantine ones surrounded themselves with Kievan Rus Vikings.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians
Roman emperors had German bodyguards. French Kings had Swiss. Turkish sultans had Christian Slavs to defend their persons. The leaders of “democratic” Athens often hired Thracians, while Persian kings increasingly relied on Greeks.
I guess we could say that the more incestuous the tyranny, the more exogamous the protection.
But there is no safety. Wasn’t Indira Gandhi gunned down by her Sikh guards?
H-1B drone pilots taking a hit of PTSD for the team.
Seems the name of the site housing the article on the landline phone gets snagged by the NC spam filter.
I’ve had that problem with a number of good reference sites, such as oil sales, econ data, etc but outside Western reach. I don’t know if it’s an NC spam filter, or rather the server/cloud solution, because these comments with “suspect” links don’t even make it to moderation but evaporate. Hence I suspect the later, the grip of the permanent state is long.
Mo the Gibbon ticks the Diversity and Inclusion boxes. For Veep maybe? I dare Trump to come up with a nickname.
‘Gibbon Take’
“No Gibbon, All Take.” The perfect Neo-liberal politico.
Like most people interested in politics and current events, my sources of information have evolved over the years. When I still lived with my parents, it was Cronkite and Huntley & Brinkley who kept me up to date on the latest from Vietnam. By the time I got to college, it was subscriptions to the NYT and WaPo. The newspapers would be spread across the common room floor every morning as we poured over the latest Watergate news. Fast forward 20 years to when I was watching MSNBC and CNN to learn what was happening with the Florida vote count. Before long the Iraq war was the big topic and cable orthodoxy wouldn’t suffice, so I went online to find “alternate” sources like the classic bushsucks.com with its long list of links to places like Russian-sponsored takes on Cheney’s invasion. It didn’t take long before the blogs appeared, so now my news was coming from Eschaton, DailyKos and Kevin Drum. When the financial crisis hit, I expanded my list to include Calculated Risk, Kunstler and most significantly, Naked Capitalism.
It was not until the run-up to the 2020 election that I really began to use video sources. Through NC, I learned about Krystal, Saager, Jimmy Dore and Rogan along with another new medium, Twitter. The most recent expansion of sources has been to Rumble where the channels seek to avoid the ever more repressive deplatforming and demonetization on Youtube. It’s been quite an evolution in both technology and democratization so that now it’s possible for Jane and Joe Citizen to produce a “show” with decent production values that is at least theoretically available worldwide.
Even with such a broad list of sources, getting the news can be frustrating outside of our beloved Naked Capitalism. Some sites are full of it when it comes to Covid. Others are off-track about Ukraine. Nearly all libertarian-leaning sites that might be good on Ukraine are bad on climate and Covid. Whoever said you’d be able to find more than one site that you could trust in addition to NC?
Can you imagine a regular podcast that employed all the powerful persuasive capabilities of that medium while keeping its head straight on the most important issues? A podast like that could be a voice that had its share of skepticism and even righteous anger but with a counterbalance of common sense and empathy. Most importantly, a podcast with an ethos like Naked Capitalism would be able to speak to people under 40 who are generally less likely to read blogs these days.
The team that provides us with this oasis of sanity is already working overtime to keep us informed. Any Naked Capitalism expansion into the podcast world would take more people and more money, and that would be up to this community to provide that support if the NC team was willing to explore the idea. But from what I’ve seen around Youtube and Rumble, a voice like Naked Capitalism could play a crucial role in the rapidly evolving political and media worlds.
I’ve enjoyed Yves’ interviews by Harry Scherer in the past about CALPERS. I could imagine a rotating cast of guests that opine about a specific topic would be quite good. The two guys at “Citations Needed” podcast are quite good as an example.
For me I would also throw in mention of Robert Fisk, who seemed like the only voice of sanity as I came into adulthood. During the first Gulf war I was so immensely grateful for his critical and sane coverage and his extreme knowledge of middle east affairs. At times it seemed like his was the lone voice. Interestingly, he reported from typically conservative and not so progressive rags like the Sun, who eventually sacked him, and it’s remarkable they tolerated his dissenting anti-war, anti-US policy views for so long. Sadly, he passed 3 years ago but I have no doubt he had immense influence over several generations of critical thinkers coming into world politics.
Fisk is the guy who, right after the Iraq war, said: “Given the provocations, what’s surprising is how mild the Muslim’s response is.”
Robert Fisk’s writing was incredible. I miss his voice more and more.
Sometimes I’ve pondered how one might try to go about doing a sort of recording of a summary reading of the NC links (like reading excerpts from all the articles or something) for people who have an easier time listening to the news as opposed to reading, but then I worry about that ending up decreasing traffic to NC.
“White House Correspondents’ dinner attendees asked to test for COVID-19 after 2022 superspreader”
Saw Biden talking on the news tonight when he was at the White House Correspondents’ dinner. Classic Biden. Mean, nasty, mocking and happy to put the boot in. Come to think of it, you could say the same for most of the correspondents at that dinner as well. At least Biden does not have to worry about what Tucker Carlson will say the next day. Good timing that-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3o14lPPbsc (2:56 mins)
There was video yesterday of him seemingly wandering away from the Air Force football team. It was very nobody’s home upstairs.
Or a phrase I sometimes use – ‘the lights are on but nobody’s home.’ But count your blessings. Can you imagine having Biden as President when he was only in his fifties and running on all cylinders?
There would be way more instances of Biden proclaiming “you ain’t black”, challenging weaker political opponents to push ups or Obama is clean events. His status as a proud ignoramus means he would have to learn on the fly like today. His handlers wouldn’t be able to keep him from mugging for the camera. Think of him like John McCain with less charisma and an inability to keep things lights.
The Biden whining about wearing a mask “in his own home” is who he is. Ultimately, he would remain the listless mess as he went from two jobs with no responsibilities or accountability to the President.
Then you have to recognize his bully tendencies too. A joke on the Daily Show would require an appearance where he could squeeze the hosts hand and make his own joke about the host. A powerful person dunking on Biden would send him running.
Biden wouldn’wouldn’t fire a Pete Buttigieg because it was such a terrible idea in the first place that it would betray weakness on Biden’s part.
Just saw an excellent Greenwald Twitter thread on the Correspondent’s Dinner:
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1652648987290132481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
I vaguely remember one noteworthy Dinner back in 2006, when some guy named Stephan Colbert ripped both the sitting President and his media stenographers to their faces over the lies of the Iraq War. I wonder what ever happened to that guy? Was he exiled like Hersh?
He received a chip implant, or got in touch with his inner hack and became the obsequious Democrat Party apologist and TDS vector we now observe.
I always had respect for his 2006 Correspondent’s Dinner performance and O’Reilly schtick, but now wonder if it was all a partisan subterfuge. Good lord, he’s embarrassing to see now.
The bit with Karen Travers is precious. One of the first slags I learned as a kid was ‘circle jerk.’ It has informed me ever since.
It’s an amazing thing when people like Assange, Taibbi, Greenwald, Mate, Shellenberger, are considered “so-called journalists” and people like Nikki Hannah Jones are praised for a work output that barely qualifies them as writing for a living, let alone being a journalist.
Never thought I’d see the day where my country press would consider the “1619 project” significant and the Twitter Files and Sy Hersh’s work things to ignore.
That landline article triggers my inner luddite, something that is a bit ironic given that i was something of tech nerd growing up.
Anyways, there are technical aspects regarding the landline that makes it a more reliable system in an emergency. Basic being that the phone itself is powered by the network rather than needing independent power. Thus as long as the local exchange can keep going, one can call emergency services etc.
Yesterday our electricity went out for about 30 minutes. I realized it when our phone-jack only landline rang, not our electrically charged cordless phones. We live in an area without cell phone service, so we’re dependent on our landlines. During the blackout we got two phone calls.
We only had a landline til last week. We will be traveling soon and have experienced access/communication problems when only being able to use our wireless devices trying to access hotels, calling cabs, etc. so we bought the damn eyephones. We have been made fun of over the years for not having cell phones. We still have the landline.
Teen suicide rates have gone through the roof since smart phones introduced in 2011. No says at school to parents we are going to transition your child to a dumb phone/landline as a life saving treatment.
Still have a landline, but unplugged the phone years ago because of telemarketers etc. Plugged phone back in the other day and found it doesn’t work. Don’t know if it’s the line or phone or what.
Kept the landline as long as it came bundled with Verizon internet. When a local business opened up offering a much better internet rate, I jumped ship but found (sadly) that keeping just the cooper-wire phone service would cost $80.00 per month. I then understood why everyone I know had switched to cellphone-only long before.
I keep the landline because I want the extra security, but I have noticed that the old copper landlines is basic plus long distance is slightly more expensive than my internet and cellphone.
I thought about dropping the landline, but the local service only has at most half a days backup via battery power. Once that goes, no cellphone or internet, which did happen with the fires in Northern California.
We have only a landline and it’s one of the old black ones that weighs about five lbs. but the quality of the sound is way better than a cell phone. During the past couple years we have been receiving fewer and few junk calls and there are hardly any now. The biggest problem with the landline is that there is a delay when connected to a cell phone so it encourages people to talk over each other.
Wife finally allowed me to cancel the landline last year after she tired of receiving nothing but solicitations from it. We keep the “dry loop” for our ADSL internet access.
I hope you realize that unlike a copper landline, your ADSL will not work when the power goes out.
https://homenetworkgeek.com/will-dsl-work-during-a-power-outage/
From the latest NLR, an illuminating, comprehensive read on NATO and ‘ Natopolitanism’ —
Weapon of Power, Matrix of Management: NATO’s Hegemonic Formula
by Grey Anderson
https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii140/articles/grey-anderson-weapon-of-power-matrix-of-management
Some samples –
‘…the coveted prospect of a Polish-Ukrainian corridor to the Black Sea, opening the way to the riches of the Caspian and Central Asia.footnote … was the ‘prize’ envisioned by Zbigniew Brzezinski, chief theorist of NATO expansion … ‘To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires’, Brzezinski wrote, ‘the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together….’
‘Defending the Natopolitan outlook was a vastly expanded galaxy of think tanks, whose numbers have grown in tandem with NATO’s ever more capacious concept of ‘security’, now encompassing everything from fossil-fuel consumption and pandemic preparedness to digital media. They nourish the Atlanticist mass media with a steady supply of insider information and op-eds ….’
‘Since the turn of the 2010s, attention has trained on the arena of so-called hybrid threats, where ‘disinformation’ occupies pride of place. This watchword, meant to describe Russian and Chinese attempts to influence the politics of Western states, is better understood as a mechanism to sidestep traditional diplomacy and inflate threats, justifying increased defence spending and ‘public-private partnerships’ across sectors like surveillance, artificial intelligence and cyberwarfare. Viewed accordingly, the US … exerts by some measure the most powerful external influence in European politics ….’
‘A digest published by RAND in 2019 cited Andrew Marshall’s 1972 report for the think tank, Long-Term Competition with the Soviets, as inspiration for ‘cost imposing’ strategies vis-à-vis Moscow …Such an approach was not without risk. Were Ukraine overwhelmed, or forced to accept a Carthaginian peace, ‘US prestige and credibility’ could suffer ….’
‘
A Polish-Ukrainian corridor to the Black Sea? I could see that as an ambition right now. If that happened, Europe west of the Elbe river would be permanently blocked off from ever having contact with Russia, China and all the rest of the Eurasian mainland countries. Such a combination would form a hostile block between the two regions but more to the point, this new entity would be seeking to be the new power axis in Europe rather than the German-French one at the moment. Of course the US is supporting this idea which is why they are transferring so much of their military from Germany to Poland. The danger for Poland is that they would become more and more like the Ukraine and I am not sure the Polish people would really want to go there.
Brzezinski may have written about NATO expansion, but he was long out of power by then. As we’ve discussed, lots of nations had good, selfish reasons for wanting NATO to continue, and, for several years after the end of the Cold War there was little interest in expanding it and far too many other things to do. And as we’ve also discussed it was essentially pressure from the Visegrad states, and the influence of Eastern European diasporas in the US, that brought the subject back onto the agenda. The fact is that the former Warsaw Pact countries were in such a mess then, and the political situation in the region so potentially dangerous, that bringing them into NATO, which was conceived as a stabilisation measure, was probably the least worst of the possible options. The fact that cumulative expansion would one day create problems for Russia was sort-of acknowledged, but we’ll deal with that problem when it happens. This is an example of a classic intellectual fallacy that I’ve written about elsewhere: the selection of events and statements from the past to create a purposive narrative where one doesn’t really exist.
By the same token, Russia should have been allowed to join NATO, which, if I recall, was one of Putin’s first proposals as the Russian leader. That would have solved a lot of problems.
Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev made the same proposal and both were refused:
Already Molotov made that proposal in 1954 in an attempt to save the security arrangement agreed for the post-WW2 Europe.
So NATO expansion was conceived as a *stabilisation* measure? Forgive me if I can’t take this statement seriously. Certainly there was a tremendous level of instability in the region and, of course, within the former USSR. What did the US, NATO, and the collective West do under those conditions? We *exploited* them, starting with our contribution to the “stabilization” – I mean violent Balkanization – of Yugoslavia. That began almost as soon as the USSR collapsed, and it was crucial in giving NATO its post-Cold War identity and legitimation. Yes, Yugoslavia was an artificial construct with a long history of ethnic conflict. We – meaning the US and NATO – did not create that situation. What we did was what we always do. We took advantage of the situation to create and reward new allies, destroy nations that resisted, and gain our first foothold (and a giant military base) in the region. All this while we were contributing to the fragmentation and looting of Russia. The rest is “history.”
Also, Brzezinski may not have held a formal position in the 1990s, but his ideas were alive and well. The neocons and their “Vulcan” allies like Rumsfeld and Cheney had been writing about their plans to insure a unipolar hegemony since the fall of the USSR. This wasn’t some Q-Anon conspiracy theory; they wrote out their plans in detail in a number of pretty well-known policy statements, got themselves inserted into various administrations both Republican and Democrat, and steadily began work to carry out these plans. Though using NATO as an expansive fence around defeated Russia may not have been a priority for everyone in the foreign policy Establishment, it was always the stated goal for these guys. Their narrative has been about as “purposive” as could be. And guess what? They were able to act on it!
Believe it or not I am not unsympathetic to your caution. I spent most of my adult academic life doing something similar – emphasizing systemic structural constraints and complex historical contingencies against simplistic theories of “instrumental” action by elites. But late in life I have come to the realization that sometimes small numbers of powerful people can utilize their institutional resources to force massive disruption and bring great havoc on the world. Labeling these efforts as “conspiracy theories” and ridiculing them is a useful way of keeping the public ignorant about such efforts. I feel I contributed to that in the past, which is why I’m so thin-skinned about the topic now,
I guess Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, Assistant Professor of International Relations from Boston University, is one of the “conspiracy theorists”. According to his “Eastbound and down: The United States, NATO enlargement, and suppressing the Soviet and Western European alternatives, 1990–1992” (pdf: University of Maryland) the NATO enlargement was all about asserting the US hegemony in Europe and suppressing all other options that Europeans might have interested in.
kinda surprised nobody’s mentioned Gladio, or PNAC,lol.
all of this was engineered, over a long time, by a bunch of russophobic lunatics with pricey educations and a generational focus on getting their supposed due.
…allied, of course…if sometimes willy nilly…with certain, often more pragmatic, sub-cabals within the ruling class, who fear above all else what happened in Russia in 1913(?–stoned rn), happening here.
hence, trolls like mencius moldbug becoming thiel’s court philosopher…the engineering of teabillyism and q-anon…and (the spawning of the above)…the weaponisation of the christofascists under the flag of Roe, circa early 70’s.
see: Bertram Gross
https://thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Friendly_Fascism_BGross.html
towit:
“Before World War II there were many small, right-wing movements whose members were driven by nightmares of evil conspirators-usually communists, Jews, Catholics, “niggers” or “nigger lovers”-bent on destroying the “American way of life.” During the immediate prewar period, their fears were expressed directly in the Dies Committee’s crusade against “pinkos” in the Roosevelt administration. After World War II, these witch-hunting nightmares were transformed into dominant ideology. Professional antiradicalism became entrenched during the brief period of atomic monopoly. It grew stronger in the more frenetic period of nuclear confrontation after Russia acquired atomic bombs. With some toning down and fine tuning, it has maintained itself during the present and more complex period of conflict with socialism and communism. During each of these stages it meshed rather well with anti-capitalist ideology in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and other communist countries, thereby providing an ideological balance to parallel the delicate balance of nuclear terror. More specifically, it has given the overall rationale for the extension of America’s multicontinental frontiers. It has helped link together the many disparate elements in America’s quasi-empire. In large measure, the unity of the NATO countries in Europe had depended on their fear of Soviet communism, and the allegiance of Japan to the United States on the fear of either Soviet or Chinese communism. American aid to “have-not” countries, in turn, has often varied with their ability to produce-or invent-a communist threat on or within their borders. At home, anti-communism has provided the justification needed by the ambitious leaders of the massive military establishment. As Colonel James A. Donovan wrote after retirement from the U.S. Marine Corps, “If there were no Communist bloc . . ., the defense establishment would have to invent one.”
Above all, anti-communism has been a valuable instrument in containing pressures for a more rapid expansion of welfare-state measures as opposed to more generous forms of aid to business. In this sense, the ideology of anti-communism has also been anti-socialistic. Although favoring corporate and military socialism for the benefit of businessmen and military officers, the anti-communists have bitterly attacked the “creeping socialism” that aims to benefit the poor, the underorganized, and the ethnic minorities.”
https://thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Mysterious_Establish_FF.html
about a third of the way down.
a pretty remarkable book, with voluminous footnotes, written in 1980-81…i found it via thirdworldtraveller.com…whom i am surprised to find is still a going concern.
as with everydamnedthingelse, keep salt handy.
I can only say I don’t think anyone noticed it at the time. Whether or not you think it succeeded (and the alternative was never clear) the first expansion of NATO was conceived as a stabilising measure, giving among other things a degree of protection to the new members from each other. (I was in Warsaw in the early 90s and it was obvious that nationalism and territorial claims were back in force.) Yugoslavia is a red herring here: it was never remotely considered for NATO membership, and was a massively divisive and controversial subject within the Alliance from 1992. NATO nearly came apart over Kosovo.
Aurelien: Brzezinski may have written about NATO expansion, but he was long out of power by then.
Come on. Madeleine Albright was very much in power then. Albright, Brzenzinski’s student and apprentice had been immediately recruited in 1976 after her former professor’s accession to the post of National Security Advisor to work first as an aide to then-secretary of state Ed Muskie and then in 1978 directly under Brzenzinski in the West Wing as the NSC’s congressional liaison.
Thence to her role in the 1990s in the Clinton administration as, first, US ambassador to the UN and then US secretary of state. With the best will in the world, I see so little light between Albright’s policies and those of her mentor, Bzrezenski, that they might as well be the same person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright#Early_career
Aurelien: …as we’ve also discussed it was essentially pressure from the Visegrad states, and the influence of Eastern European diasporas in the US, that brought the subject back onto the agenda.
The NLR article’s author, Grey Anderson, gives an account of the sitation in the Visegrad states, just as he points to Albright’s sponsorship by Bzrezinski and continuation of her mentor’s strategic theories, as factors playing their parts in the development of the NATO/Atlanticist stew we have today. He’s basically attempting an anatomization of seventy-some years of NATO culture and history, and his piece is the first chapter in a book coming out later in the summer
What he doesn’t do is what you’ve apparently assumed he does, which is offer some simplistic Bzrezinski-centered grand conspiracy theory. Or as you put it….
Aurelien: … an example of a classic intellectual fallacy that I’ve written about elsewhere: the selection of events and statements from the past to create a purposive narrative where one doesn’t really exist.
Granted, all you had to go on without reading Anderson’s piece were the brief soundbites I extracted to interest the NC crowd. Granted, too, you’d have had to actually glance at the piece to know that it was more than that before you offered your lordly gestures of dismissal.
Still, isn’t it generally a good idea to find out if one knows what is talking about before offering one’s opinion?
Aurelien: … the former Warsaw Pact countries were in such a mess then, and the political situation in the region so potentially dangerous, that bringing them into NATO, which was conceived as a stabilisation measure, was probably the least worst of the possible options.
I’m sympathetic to ‘I am the man, I was there’ type arguments. I assume, too, that your description of the situation then was exactly how it seemed to you in, as it were, the belly of the beast.
On the other hand, however, sometimes all that those in the belly of the beast are able to see is the daily churn of excrement there.
Nope, there was no security threat to compel those countries to join NATO. In fact in Romania, it was seen and sold as a pre-condition to join EU…
Huh? It has been well chronicled that the first step in post USSR collapse NATO expansion, the admission of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, came out of Bill Clinton using that as a campaign promise to win Polish votes in the US. He was likely arm-twisted by Albright and fed geopolitical rationales, but his immediate motivator was his re-election.
NATO then and now is a US instrument. NATO members then and now accede to what the US wants.
That was only a small part of the story, as what happens in Washington often is. US views on the subject changed for the reasons you give, but the idea had been up and running for some time.
“Russia slams Polish ‘seizure’ of embassy school in Warsaw”
It’s just not the Embassy school. A coupla days ago the Polish government stole the Russian embassy’s bank account as well as the trade representative’s office as well. How often do you hear of that ever happening?
‘Polish prosecutors confiscated the Russian embassy’s bank account, supposedly as part of a money laundering and terrorism investigation, without presenting any actual charges or speaking to any Russian diplomats, Moscow’s ambassador to Warsaw, Sergey Andreyev has claimed.
“We were asked no questions,” Andreyev told RT on Thursday.
He explained that Warsaw froze the embassy’s account at the Santander Bank in February 2022, when the Ukraine conflict escalated. When the freeze order expired on March 2 this year, “immediately all the money was transferred to the prosecutor’s office [account] in another bank – of course, without consent – on suspicion that it was used for money-laundering and funding terrorism,” the diplomat added.’
https://www.rt.com/russia/575447-poland-theft-accounts-embassy/
Obviously the rules-based order has precedence over such quaint things as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The Polish government is going to lead their country into a helluva mess. Hope that they are not stupid enough to send the Polish army into the Ukraine. The present war is like the US Civil war – a brother war which the Russians consider a tragedy. But the Russians will have no qualms about hitting the Poles.
When i first read a headline i thought they had seized the embassy itself.
I guess nothing is sacred these days. How long before we hear about them trying to arrest Lavrov or similar at some diplomatic gathering?
And i do wonder if the Polish government think they can just skedaddle to UK or USA after getting Russia riled up enough. Maybe set up a nice waterfront view in Florida like all the rest of DC’s attack dogs?
My thought as well.
Since rules are made to be broken, If Russia declared the deposits in Santander “cancelled” and declared those particular digital rubles all zeroes instead of ones and zeroes, would anyone blink?
Or, I’m sorry Polish vendors, send your bill to the Prosecutors Office for prompt payment.
Hunger strike by the children?
Theatre of the Absurd!
Rumsfeld’s New Europe comes to mind. Warsaw sees itself as a neo-West Germany capable of being a more manageable overseer of the Euro-microstates than Germany and suffers from delusions of grandeur.
They all know by now the Russians aren’t going to pour into the EU.
On the all politics is local level, I’m pretty certain Polish politicians own the land where US bases would go. National level trade deals with a country like South Korea won’t make the politicos rich like selling to the US or Wal Mart needed to supply the troops. Brussels/Berlin/Paris is worried seizing the property of private individuals on a whim is backfiring across Europe, but they don’t have an easy prize such as owning land that is worthless except for running tanks.
Hungary’s Victor Orban just gave a speech where he said Poland’s end game in this is to form a “Polish-Ukrainian commonwealth” within EU, with a population between 60-70 million and thus second only to Germany.
He may not be that far from the truth, all the clues kinda are there.
Apparently Bloomberg is calling for Orban to go. That speech may may stung a little too much.
https://www.axios.com/2023/04/25/netflix-south-korean-content
Color me cynical, but 2.5B to win over South Korean hearts and minds? Shaping culture to support US imperialist ambitions in the region.
Some of the best series on Netflix are Korean-made, so it could be that they want to draw more water from that well.
However, I find that the best Korean shows on Netflix are not the ones made for Netflix, but the ones made by Korean networks for their own audience.
Therefore it is possible that big outside investments are made with an agenda of co-opting Korean artists.
The series I like best are those made by the TvN network, such as My Mister or Misaeng. I’m actually a bit surprised these shows are still on Netflix, because their implied politics are neither woke nor globalist.
Watching a weekly news show on ABC, discussing the 2024 election and the Biden official campaign launch. A current senator, Coons, is citing all the accomplishments of the Biden admin.
Biden owes a few Americans $600. Biden will actually have to travel and campaign for this election. The most union friendly president caved and bailed on the rail workers last fall. And there is a sundry of a few other “accomplishments”. Vomit inducing. Is the national SPR being filled again, yet?
One accomplishment, maybe, in spite of these feckless leaders. A dozen eggs at the local grocery has declined to roughly $2.00, I went big and went home with 18 eggs for $3.00.
Once Biden* gets away from the Acela corridor and Southern California, those campaign appearances are going to get dicey. He is going to get tired fast. He has never been particularly good on the stump.The local news are more likely to print or broadcast things the national press wouldn’t. And no matter how tightly controlled audience video of the events is going to get out. His nastiness, his bullying and his cognitive decline are going to get displayed. They may only decide not to show up, but mark my words he is going to lose votes.
*All this is based on Biden finish his actual campaigning, god forbid the DNC really does get desperate and do a “Dave” type substitution.
“Biden will actually have to travel and campaign for this election.”
Why, when the Permanent State will do the heavy lifting to secure the election? ie: the campaign will not be dirty, it will be rigged.
Yes, I learnt about this when watching what happened around the primaries that Sanders was in line to win in the previous 2 elections.
And the Fiji election.
Who would have thought that “computer glitches” could change the trajectory of elections? And be utterly ignored or mansplained by the msm?
Fox has been neutered. Took a while, but it was the only large media org that wasn’t in lockstep with the narrative.
Divide and conquer is how power is gained by the Totalitarians.
All those journos, forced out of the msm for not parroting the narrative, will be so much easier to pick off, one by one.
Don’t forget the largest increase in child poverty in history with the expiration of tax credits for that. And a huge increase in hunger and starvation and death with people getting thrown off Medicaid and the end of additional SNAP benefits.
Truly, the most malevolent and malicious liberal Democrat rein since Barack Obama.
Oh, and 700k COVID deaths and discrediting public health. We’d be better off if Putin did invade or whatever; liberal Democrats would at least be right about something for once.
What is this I hear about lenders gearing up to charge interest for all of the people who did not make payments on their student loans during the deferral period that has been going on? If they were truly in deferral during this time period then I find it ridiculous that lenders can still charge non-payment interest penalties.
When the Supreme Court votes down Biden’s erroneously-praised student loan relief proposal, I am curious to see the political backlash that results when Biden shrugs his shoulders and pretends there is nothing he can do…yet under the Higher Education Act of 1965 Biden can eliminate as much of or all of students loan debt as he wants by Executive Order.
The real question is, did Biden propose students loan relief the way he did knowing that it would fail, or was it simply because he does not care enough to actually fight for it whether it goes through or not? It is so hard to tell if Biden’s pathetic job of being president is born out of malic, or simply laziness in preferring to drift along with the neoliberal status quo.
Maybe this will be the year for the first virtual campaign with AI generated candidates giving ChatGPS speeches. It would certainly make life easier for Biden’s handlers.
On that election, and from the “you can’t make this up file.” This is about 5 days old, from the NYT and Thomas Friedman, but I just happened to see a Tweet about it.
Why Kamala Harris Matters So Much in 2024
Maybe he’s on to something, but in the wrong way. Can you imagine the wordsmith Kamala talking to a robot? That could AI back years, if they don’t hiss, spit, and short circuit first, with might be even better.
Dear gawd, what a clown show.
Hey, hey, hey. That is future Madame President Kamala Harris that you are talking about! Show a little respect. I already have my popcorn ready for her first State of the Union speech. That one will be up there with the speech made by Pontius Pilate-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lc86JUAwwg (5:17 mins)
Speechifying by President Kamala Harris? Please, no. I sometimes get sympathetic to her word salad, but then I recall that she does have speechwriters and staff. She could easily get whatever help she needed to be competent. Maybe not good because some people just never are, which is okay, but is she just refusing to accept her disastrous inability at public speaking and getting the help she needs?
Really, she was giving better speeches as a DA, but then most of them were
about jailing the parents of truants and other niceties.
Don’t forget that the average length of a State of the Union speech is about an hour or more though Nixon and Carter could knock one out in half an hour-
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/annual-messages-congress-the-state-the-union-0
But even listening to half an hour of a Kamala word salad would be epic.
True, but would we need to have a President Kamala Harris spew a State of the Union at us all? The State of the Union used to be done as a written report, which I think might be better, more honest than the used car pitch that seems to be what it is now; grandiloquent words used to create a verbal hagiography of themselves and their political side while subtly depicting their opponents as depraved carnies.
I think that generally it is better to have a written report as was done in during the first entire century of the Republic anyways. It would be nice to avoid a Kamala Salad.
Rogan and Malhotra talking Statins. utube, ~14 minutes.
Cardiologist on the Over-Prescribing of Statins for Heart Disease
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3BzgZqFuZc
I recall that Karl Denninger, over at the market ticker, made a similar observation a few years ago about over prescription of statins. Now he based that on a hunch, citing one of the sources about the marginal increase in life expectancy for cardiac patients. Its a bummer, all-in-all.
Imho, doctors over-prescribe almost everything in their rush to get patients out of the office. A script is so much more *efficient* than asking a few pertinent questions about lifestyle, etc. and taking a brief history.
Thirty years ago I had a duodenal ulcer. My doctor prescribed me the latest and greatest anti-ulcer medication. I politely accepted the script and then didn’t bother having it filled. I just stopped taking aspirin on an empty stomach (which she wouldn’t haven’t known about because she never asked). The ulcer and its symptoms quickly disappeared.
My aunt had high blood-pressure* in her later years but took no medication for it, just consumed copious quantities of garlic. She lived to be 96.
These two anecdotes are by no means a recommendation to ignore a doctor’s advice out-of-hand. They are just a caution that doctors like prescribing drugs when other simpler, safer remedies might be available. But those would entail some time-consuming questions by the doctor.
Better and faster to hand over a script. Doctors like scripts and they know that patients perceive scripts as “healthcare”. So scripts it is.
*I have high blood-pressure myself, which is probably hereditary since I’ve never been overweight and have exercised and eaten a good diet most of my life. I take no medications for it though they have been suggested by doctors. I will just continue exercising and eating a healthy diet (with lots of garlic of course) and let the chips fall where they may.
In a weird dichotomy of the rich getting richer and the strong acquiring the weak, the FDIC as the regulator of record is seeking out bids for what would remain, at this point, of First Republic Bank. Bidders are reported to include Bank of America, JPM Chase, PNC and maybe some others. I wouldn’t rule out something happening at the 11th hour, maybe a split of the spoils to dissuade regulator concerns on deposit concentrations.
Fifteen damn years are the colossal failures of 2008, what the heck are we doing at the same spot again. Reminds me of that scene out of the Accountant, where the Jon Bernthal character moderately threatens the hedge fund manager and punches him in the same spot twice.
Welcome correction, but my understanding is that if another bank acquires a failed one, the FDIC doesn’t have to cover the failed bank’s accounts. But somebody mentioned that First Republic has a lot of investments that have lost value so no other bank may want them.
Typically the above would be true, but any potential or very likely legacy losses on loans or investments would likely not convey over to a new owner. The FDIC did a good bit of what’s called ring fencing the worst dreck from the 2008 crisis. The deposits are the simplest to analyze, typically, I think.
Nepal has granted a record number of permits to climb Everest despite potential for traffic jams in the so-called ‘death zone’ Business Insider
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here in the half-pint Himalaya (Mt Whitney is almost exactly 1/2 the altitude of Mt Everest) we’re fortunate to not have to walk by corpses strewn around the mountain as you scramble to the top of the smorgasbord of the High Sierra, there being only a couple of summits with trails.
A wilderness permit is $15 and $5 more per person, a permit to walk the 72 mile High Sierra Trail starting August 3rd was $50 for 7 of us, versus something on the order of $50k per person to climb Everest.
Food gas booze & grass is probably $143 per person more for the walk, so $150 a person for a 9 day backpack, around a grandido for everybody, versus $350k if the 7 of us were to try and summit Everest.
The proverbial high mark as personal accomplishment was completed in 2019, visiting Observation Point in Zion NP. Walking the trail itself was oddly enough, slightly uninteresting. Utah does have some excellent landscapes, having only visited that one time, I would definitely go back. The travel planner in the family has South Dakota on the agenda for this year. Badlands plus some other place that oddly is missing our 45th and 46th Presidential mugs.
One day I’m sure they’ll get around to CA and Yosemite again. I might be using these tidbits of local knowledge that you frequently provide!
‘A ‘Hidden Curriculum’ in Med School Trains Doctors to Have Less Empathy’
Empathy isn’t innate, it’s learned and must be taught from an early age, preferably by example. Therefore, that future doctor needs to have come from a family/tribe who sees the value in such emotional training, makes the time, and has the skill set to pass on and reinforce. Nothing can be assumed by what economic class that student came from.
There are limits to what a medical school can include in their curriculum. In an ideal world of my making, medical school would be free and only to those over 40. “Healers” should start out with some mileage on them.
In practice in the workplace the emotional “work” gets delegated to the nursing staff and PA’s, where burnout seems to be especially high. Effectively less power to act on their compassionate response, considerably less money as reward, few tools to address that which is not physical alone (rarely!) but bio-psycho-social… and not manana but right now or better, yesterday.
Nothing is burning out this very intelligent, well-educated class of people like the evidence they see every day that what they’re doing is making no difference in the lives of their patients at all. Little in their education or residency thus far prepares them for what’s going to be walking in their doors and the institutions they work for seem to have an entirely different agenda. Patients have become a means to an end.
Empathy isn’t always innate, but sometimes even “lower” order animals can demonstrate actions we can label Empathy. Empathy sometimes can’t even be learned; while The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR) no longer includes the terms Sociopath, the underlying diagnosis / testing is still there.
My experience 40+ years ago was that medical school work hard to weed out individuals with strong empathy, now that the corporate business culture has take fully ahold, I find it hard to imagine how much worse it is. There were some wonderful interviews of medical students from the USA who went to Cuba to study on BT News. Most were there by choice, they wanted to serve their communities and not corporations. They found the American system hostile to their need to express Empathy.
The DSM-5 was talked about here on NC, resident Phd Psychiatrist specializing in head traumas and others pointed out the ideological underpinnings of some of the committee. Big Industry sort of agenda which further removed any notion of social psychology, everything was individual driven, and if memory serves something about the term debt being used.
In kind with your observation about empathy being removed [waves at Hayek] my youngest daughter who since birth loved animals and dreamed of being a Vet left school after 2 years. They competently changed the curriculum and she said they took the love out of it. Now she has spent 2+ years working front desk at a big hospital ED and left because of all the Covid fall out making it joyless and manic. Just left Brisbane to join sister in in SE1 London – crosses fingers she does no have to work at NIH.
One doesn’t want to too wildly generalize but I believe doctors tend to see themselves as scientists rather than people persons and it’s science majors who have the chops to make the difficult grade. Plus in a job where many of your clients are going to inevitably die then empathy must take a toll on the practitioners.
In any case in my limited experience I haven’t gotten much empathy vibe from physicians. Nurses on the other hand are better at it.
Likewise veterinarians, mostly science nerds who go into veterinary medicine because they have some/more empathy for animals vs. people, and I think they prefer patients that can’t talk.
When I was doing a master’s program to become a social worker (I’ve mentioned here before I stopped short of completion by about 4 credits, so I did complete the majority of curriculum and all the practical training, but never ended up actually practicing professionally) I ended up reading a lot of articles outside of coursework that were published in nursing journals.
Social work as a discipline is supposed to value empathy, and it uses the biopsychosocial model and/or ecological systems model (micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, and chronospheres). I also had a professor who developed the liberation health model for family practice, which looks at personal, cultural, and institutional factors that may be contributing to problems a family is experiencing. It’s pretty cool and draws on liberation psychology as one of its influences.
It seemed to me that the stuff I read in nursing journals often expressed a greater or more genuine empathy toward patients than what my experience was of the professional role I was being socialized into during the course of my studies/training. Social work as a discipline, and especially (at least in the u.s.) as an educational curriculum with a self-conscious focus on standards of accreditation, seems to me to be in the midst of something similar to what my dad called psychiatry’s “physics envy” which was very much present when he was in grad school. Several years ago there was a big push within social work to rename the discipline “the science of social work”.
All of this is trying to approach sideways the idea of incorporating empathy into doctors’ training/socialization. My experience was that nurses seem to get it right, social workers seem to pretend to get it right, and I guess according to the article in the links doctors are not getting it.
Also just to say, of course there are plenty of genuinely empathetic social workers out there, even if the CSWE (council on social work education) tries to wring it out of the curriculum.
Interesting how their positions reflect a scale of resource control (i.e.: steering money into oligarchy pockets), from nurse to social worker to medical doctors. External forces applied to create selective pressures?
I quit my medical residency 11 years ago in part because I recognized that I was becoming a different person. My patience, which at one time was nearly endless, was cut in half, emotions were blunted, and I was much quicker to anger. Although I often demonstrated more feeling than many of my colleagues overall my empathy clearly was reduced, that part of me ground away into dust and has never fully returned.
I would argue that empathy is an important diagnostic and analytic tool and if our doctors are missing this key skill, they are reduced to recipe/steps/lists/procedures followers, thus are are themselves merely algorithms who know the steps required to put together a peanut butter and jam sandwich but will lack the imagination to think beyond the immediate towards the possible, so they’ll be sorta like ChatGPT bots. The ability to imagine is fundamental to empathy, so lack of empathy probably portends a very bad turn for the science of medicine.
My mother was a nurse and I remember her disdain for the language transition from “patient” to “client.” And that was in the’80s.
In this, the stupidest timeline, things can only have gotten worse over the past 40 years …
I got a dislike as to how so many relationships were reduced to the concept of a “contract.” Whether joining the army or applying for a job search article or having medical plans, it all came down to contracts being signed. When used right across the board, the general use of contracts encourages a mercenary way of thinking in the general population which is really not a good idea.
Instead of cultivating the value of dedication to one’s profession as a matter of honor and self-respect, it’s all “I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone” and maximizing the return on a minimal fulfilment of contractual obligations under the narrowest reading possible.
I use the word ‘transactional’, every relationship reduced to the language of the market, even those we may consider ‘priceless’. Family then or tribe are in part defined by those relationships we deem voluntary, transactions of ‘love’ beyond the market and price… but we old folks know that every relationship seems to have an affixed ‘value’ given enough time and distance.
– ‘Don’t Just Remember the Armenian Genocide. Prevent It From Happening Again’ – Time
– ‘Signposting Another Genocide: The World’s Obligation to Act on Clear Warning Signs’ – Human Rights Program Harvard Law School. Armenia-Azerbaijan.
Here is the real, despicable damage that the massive neoliberal “humanitarian intervention” complex has wrought. I am in no way an Armenian “genocide denier,” and I am genuinely sympathetic to the plight of the Armenians in their current situation. But today, my first reaction to articles like this is to assume that they are propaganda, and to examine them as such, considering sources, messages, and the context in which they are written. For example, consider the “good guys” in the Time article:
“Following the shelling of Armenian villages in September last year, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Adam Schiff condemned Azerbaijan’s attacks, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez called for immediate cessation of economic assistance to Azerbaijan…”
“Two years ago today, U.S. President Joe Biden made history when he formally recognized the Armenian genocide, promising to “remain vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms” and to “recommit ourselves to speaking out and stopping atrocities that leave lasting scars on the world.”
“For his statements to be more than mere words, the U.S. government must take action to discourage and deter Azerbaijan’s attacks against ethnic Armenians and any further incursion into sovereign Armenian territory…”
Where have I heard that argument before? And where have I seen these names? Can’t think of a better group of peace-loving “humanitarians.”
The second article from the Harvard Human Rights Program says this:
“Perhaps most helpful for slowing down any escalation has been the European Union presence at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. This civilian mission has five bases and moves along the border, tasked with observing and reporting on the situation on the ground and contributing to human security.”
Again, I truly deplore the suffering of the real victims here, and for all I know these future NGOers at Harvard are truly sincere in their humanitarian concerns. But when I read this stuff now, I just want to do my best Zach de la Rocha impression and scream WAKE UP!
There are also 2,000 Russian peace keepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, and also a Joint Monitoring Center by Russian and Turkish troops, both providing mine-clearing services for inhabitants of both sides.
But I’m sure the EU observers certainly are the force slowing down the escalation. The fact that Armenia depends on Russia’s good will and Azerbaijan on Turkey’s, and both of these have actual boots on the ground doing actual peace-keeping and actual de-escalation is not comparable, since they are not of The West.
Sorry, that came out as way more sarcastic than I intended. My apologies.
In my view it is just about impossible to be too sarcastic or cynical these days. No apologies necessary.
Azerbaijan is an important link in the North South Transit Corridor (NSTC) connection northern Russia through Astrakhan, Baku, and Bandar Abbas to India. You don’t suppose the “good offices” of the DC Bubble and Echo Chamber have an agenda do you?
Plus, the territories in question are literally in Russia’s and Turkiye’s “back yards” which makes their presence there understandable. The presence of EU ‘operatives’ in territories over a thousand miles away from East Europe, much less classical West Europe is, shall we say, questionable.
Agendistas got to agend I guess. I’m wondering what the agend game for Europe here is.
Re that Kansas Reflector article–the piece frames the new legislation as state verus local decision making on such matters as whether school children should be required to have Covid shots. But given that the child vaccine push is totally the result of Federal interference in medical matters then the conflict is in fact state/national. It’s not as though the FDA or CDC have been covering themselves with honor lately and can be given knee jerk obeisance as “science.” Even medical schools and education seem eager to embrace the dictated party line.To many the federal mandates that Biden so enthusiastically pushed (always the eager bully) are the very essence of the “politicization of science.”
So if the complaint is that medicine has been turned into a vulgar power struggle then look to the source. This is the debate that should be taking place rather than yet another dose of spin.
There also was an obvious question in the article left unasked: Will the Governor (a Democrat) veto the bill? At this point, that’s what it’s going to come down to, so why the journalist (in a good publication like the Kansas Reflector) didn’t address that seems weird.
“Defending a Mock Invasion of Taiwan Signals Shift for Army Special Operations After Years of Counterinsurgency”
Not sure what this is all about. I would have thought that you use special ops troops to do stuff life blow up stuff, call in missions, do some sabotage and the like. In case of an invasion, they would get swamped as they have neither the numbers nor the equipment to defend themselves. And then the Chinese would have their own special ops troops who would be hunting down these teams. So what would be the point exactly? Maybe just wanting to be seen doing something?
Ukraine, the sequel. Coming to a theater near in in 2025.
There were speculations that in case China would be in the process of taking over Taiwan (not necessarily by force) with good prospects of success, then the USA would deny China the benefit of coming into possession of the Taiwanese high-tech production infrastructure, most notably TSMC, by destroying it completely.
Since scouting and blowing things up is what special ops do, sending them to Taiwan on training duties is perhaps a good way to reconnoitre what, where, and how is to be demolished.
I think the author is confused about that as well and it comes across in the piece.
Looking to WW2, Churchill’s commando units not only did stuff like sneak behind enemy lines for recon, but also to disrupt shipping (attaching limpet mines to merchant ships at dock), demolish railyway lines, trains, roads, bridges, planes, etc. So their specialization is long range surreptitious insertion into enemy lines which in this case would mean China.
And the commandos were also known for unethical approaches, operating outside the Geneva Convention.
Only…if we’re inserting commando units into China then it means we’ll be well into WW3 and, I assume, nuclear armageddon.
The old WW-2 Commandos also often spoke the languages of the regions they operated in. The late actor Christopher Lee was one such. (He spoke several languages.) So, whoever goes into China on clandestine missions must be able to avoid detection by presumably patriotic Chinese civilians. (Every country worth it’s salt has patriots.) This means that they must, at the least, understand chinese, which also means dialects, not just Mandarin. Thus, we must find out if there is or hopefully for their survival chances has been a program in spoken chinese for American clandestine operatives.
The other possibility for China ops would be the cultivation of Latter Day Warlords. That is above my pay grade, but, considering China’s history, not outside the realm of possibility.
Stay safe and cultivate the Mandate of Heaven.
Christopher Lee had one helluva military service record-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee#Military_service
Seeing all his movies, I would never have imagined it.
I heard this story:
That time Christopher Lee taught Peter Jackson the sound a stabbed man makes
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-christopher-lee-christopher-lee-dies-saruman-peter-jackson-20150611-htmlstory.html
And it was strongly implied he was the one doing the stabbing.
The American Army’s language programs are very good, but produce speakers nowhere nears native fluency, much less accent. Also they are relatively small. When I as at a language program in 1968 I met a Ukrainian Special Forces sergeant. He had been a Waffen SS-Untersturmfuhrer in WWII, in charge of an anti-tank platoon. In fact, that was how the Special Forces were created: Eastern European veterans who were going to set up “resistance” organizations in those countries in WWIII. The Army relies on immigrants and their first-generation children as translaters. When there are not enough of those they hire locals. I always thought that was foolish from an operations security standpoint.
Who needs Twitter? I say bring back party lines. Fun article and thanks NC for “In Defense of the Landline Telephone”. In reading the article I realized I’m one of the (privileged) 3%.
Party lines? Now that’s a bridge-to-the-past too far. People hogging the line, upset neighbors, in this age of mass shootings just another excuse for some hothead to go crazy.
The party line of choice by the “kids” is Discord these days. Voice, text, images, video, all in one app.
“U.S. Seizes Iranian Oil From Tanker ”
This has happened several times now – or attempted to. This is not really a good idea and you can see that if the US ended up in serious financial strife, that they would try to do this all the time to get themselves free oil. The problem here is that Iran sits astride the Gulf and can pick out any passing oil tankers that they want as a sort of tanker hostage. The real fun and games begin where they try to seize Russian oil tankers on the grounds of some sort of bs sanction. Based on this theft of tanker oil along with Syria’s oil, it seems like Washington has actually seized on Trump’s idea of just ‘taking the oil.’ But is adopting one of Trump’s ideas a good idea in itself?
I’m shooked our military “experts” are telling Congress Russian military has been devastated and massively weakened by Ukraine. Yet amusingly, a Congressman had trouble threading the needle how Russia is now a bigger military and more powerful and a greater threat but vastly weakened. Video at Simplicius. https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/supreme-eucom-commander-gives-eye
Latest from “COVID-19 Variant Dashboard – USA”, XBB1.16* is up to about 11%. XBB1.9.1 is at 6.69% Enjoy your variants, America! The 4th is gonna be another big declaration of freedum!
Roy Wood Jr.’s remarks at the 2023 White House Correspondent’s Dinner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5m5dIiJMD0
Wow, what he just got away with, I hope they invite him back. The more I listen to this comedian, the more impressed I am. Lots of comics make me laugh, very few move me emotionally at the same time. That’s the fine balance he’s achieved.
b has two more articles on the seizure of Iranian ships and oil and coming cosequences including a potential Mideast war:
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Tanker-Carrying-Oil-For-Chevron-Seized-By-Iran.html
https://www.raialyoum.com/us-iran-shipping-war-resumes/
In 2019, after British warships detained a Syria-bound Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Gibraltar, Iran retaliated by seizing two British tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and only released them after its own tanker was freed.
Shortage of penicillin limits access to the go-to drug for syphilis
Gee, can’t possibly be because of immune dysfunction due to COVID, right?
immunity debt, man, immunity debt. years of covid lockdowns and masking kept the kids from the recreational mating ritual and so they weren’t exposed to the std’s which would have built up a systemic immune response for fighting them…
oh..,
wait…
RFKjr’s campaign declaration speech. C-SPAN, 1 hr. ~49 minutes. For anyone interested.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?527511-1/robert-kennedy-jr-announces-2024-presidential-campaign
We don’t live in a serious country: How Scalia Law School Became a Key Friend of the Court
Meanwhile the Roberts’ Court response is basically, F U.
Walked my driveway today, well miles 4 through 7 that is.
The first impassable part of Mineral King Road comes at mile 4.5 as what must’ve been a torrent came through a creek none of had ever bothered noticing before, which had enlarged to a 20 foot wide canyon completely bereft of everything save boulders & dirt-a clean sweep where you could see back about 100 feet.
What made this storm damage a little queer was there were smaller boulders and debris that extended uphill for 100 feet while the lions share that did its worst was on the downhill.
We tried to put together the scene of decline and surmised there must’ve been a boulder dam on the road which diverted incoming water, tree-bris & boulders with the force of the frankly reckless liquids, before it was breached and ended up down the canyon where a bunch of Camry sized boulders lay strewn about after having run out of gravity.
The next happenstance was at mile 5.5 where there’s a bit of a 25 foot gap between asphalt with a 10 foot deep chasm that has an improvised trail to allow somebody on foot to get to the other side, forget about it otherwise.
About mile 6 there was a landslide below the road no doubt exacerbated by heavy rain, so a new retaining wall has to be built as on the first damage, along with 3 or 4 lesser areas of damage.
I’d guestimate we saw 100 landslides on the upper side of the road, nothing too serious, but you’d see one every now and then that brought a decent sized oak tree down to the road from where it used to be perched 20 feet above.
There’s oodles more damage to the road and my cabin is @ mile 21, and all of the repairs need to be done one at a time after the previous damage down the road was fixed.
We walked to the bridge built in 1923 (happy 100th!) and listened to the roaring east fork of the Kaweah which would have nothing other than whitewater for the length of view up & down river.
Sorry. We felt a tiny bit of your pain Thursday after four inches of rain trashed my creek trail although it will be quickly repaired. Still, a window on the process. Mother Nature is angry with us.
Hope your camp is well stocked! That’s a long walk.
Another cabin owner wants to backpack to her cabin and sleep along the road and has enlisted me to join her and do my first ever all asphalt backpack trip sometime in June.
Its the only way in on foot into Mineral King, as the other avenue d’shoe passes are north facing and full of snow.
Saw a photo of my cabin from a few weeks ago and it looked ok aside from about 8-10 feet of snow on the quite slanted roof.
diana ross is going to sing her greatest hits, including “just touch my wallet, then i get to watch you walk away”
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/bank-failures-broken-markets-loom-170000971.html
Bank Failures, Broken Markets Loom Over Milken’s Capitalist Utopia
John Gittelsohn
Sat, April 29, 2023, 12:00 PM CDT
(Bloomberg) — Michael Milken wants to teach people about the harsh realities of an unforgiving world — balanced with some doses of techno-optimism and playtime with puppies.
i predicted this. i am betting that is where many, even most new agents will investigate, not the wealthy, but the little guys.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/unwarranted-unfair-irs-watching-much-150000772.html
‘Unwarranted and unfair’: The IRS is now watching how much you make selling any items online — how even casual sellers could get dinged by the new tax rules.
It’s like the Blob does this kind of thing without thinking about it anymore. Here’s a thing which hurts little people who are trying to skirt around paying taxes, and also using their side hustle to support “quiet quitting”, that will provide more support for a shift to CBDC. Because if they had THAT they’re be no need for the extra reporting requirements…
If this isn’t all part of a grand conspiracy it’s amazing to see that every piece fits the goals beyond Davos-man’s “you’ll own nothing, have no privacy, and love it.”
I like my puns type cast-not spoken, not that there’s anything write with that, but it takes me out of the running for perhaps run-on sentences vocalized for a prize!
I do have lineage as my brother-in-law once nabbed 3rd place in what I daresay was drive-by shooting off his mouth in Austin, and he just happened to be @ the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships as it were.
Get ready to rumble in a fortnight!
https://www.punoffatx.brushsquaremuseums.org/
Today’s antidote looks like Benedict Cumberbatch.
Given the commentariat’s love of parody and satire in musical form, I thought this recent post by Mr. Emerson Brophy would be appreciated. It’s about the recent surge in child labor violations and the thread comes with lots of citations.
He’s a singing satirist that my kids like to listen to.
It seems things are happening quickly in Ukraine. The current open link at MoA is worth a look.
re: Massive Blaze at Fuel Depot in Crimea
Something very off about the footage, doesn’t seem real. Firefighters seem fake, staged, perfectly clean firefighting gear, also acting very…weird. Even the smoke in the sky seems weird.
And doesn’t this guy seem chromakeyed and artificially lit?
https://youtu.be/uM-xZ-3U1ak?t=8
Compare and contrast with a real blaze in Cuba:
https://youtu.be/eAnluA08tQ0
> Fuel Depot in Crimea up in smoke
> Air defense, military warehouse, industrial facilities and a large railway junction wiped out in Pavlograd
Also, for grins:
“Of Ukraine’s glorious counter-offensive”
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/43912
The Neocons are demanding that the Ukrainians attack, no matter the casualties. Apart from all the money and weapons sent, the Neocons have invested a helluva amount of political capital so now they want, as they term it, a return on their investment. Political careers are at stake.
The thing that worries me is whether US will keep doubling down in Ukraine like a Soc Gen rogue trader? Are they at the point where they *need* to flip the coin one more time?